November 02, 2009

By By Richard Smirke, London

U.K. ad-funded music streaming service We7 has launched a new feature that uses geolocation technology to help labels track where their repertoire is most popular.

The "Heat Maps" service, measures the popularity of specific artists, music genres, tracks and albums among We7's U.K. database, which now totals 2.5 million users per month, according to the company.

Effective immediately, the service is available free of charge to all of We7's partner labels upon request, as well as artists that We7 has direct deals with. Information is compiled by We7's technical team and serviced to labels in the form of a percentage breakdown indicating the regional popularity of an artist, song, genre, or album.

"We7 has always been open with the data that we have," We7 chief technical officer Gareth Reakes tells Billboard.biz. "These are the first steps. Another one is going to be provision of data on your album plays [so] you can see what your next single should be."

Reakes says Heat Maps will also help labels track where their national and regional marketing spend for a particular release has been most effective, and help pinpoint where acts should be playing live.

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